Content Marketing: The How Vs. the What

We’ve all heard about how important it is to have fresh, relevant content on your website. What we’d like to point out, is that while content is important, it’s not so much the how as the what. What does this mean you ask? Many times there is too much emphasis on form and methodology instead of the most important ingredient of marketing - communication. It’s an easy trap to fall into. It’s been drilled into our head to follow certain steps to produce quality content. But sometimes we get too caught up in the steps and we forget to communicate with our audience. 

Creating content shouldn’t be merely about education and driving people to your site. All content you produce should have the goal of sparking conversation with your customers. This doesn’t necessarily mean conversation directly between you and customers, but rather conversation about you. There are many ways that this can happen - social media being a big one. For example, a retweet might not look like much of a conversation to you, but it really is an affirmation and an invitation for more people to join in on the conversation.

Now the question becomes - what should I do? Instead of mechanically creating new content on a regular basis, talk to your customers. Rather than thinking of the types of content you want to create (i.e. blogs, videos, etc.), think about what you want to say to your audience. It’s okay to not follow the formula to the letter - speak to your audience as if they were right there beside you. If your goal is to teach them something new, do it. If you want to entertain, make them laugh. Your audience won’t necessarily be paying attention to how you are writing your content, but they will appreciate what you are saying. And if they are interested and engaged, they will pass the conversation on to others and create interest that will boost your marketing and traffic to your site.